FORT LAUDERDALE - Residents of a condo in Fort Lauderdale have been forced to leave their building after a structural engineer reportedly deemed it unsafe.

The last-minute notice happened as Hurricane Helene is set to make landfall in Florida.

Residents of Springbrook Gardens at 125 North Birch Road were told to evacuate, Thursday. “It makes no sense to me,” said a resident. “This whole thing is crazy,” said another resident. “We’ve got to leave in an hour,” said a resident. ‘Excuse me, I’m going to walk away.” According to residents, they received a letter from an engineering company, which said the building was deemed unsafe.

 

“This morning when we got up, we got a letter from the engineer being sent over to the city telling the city to come down to evacuate us immediately because the winds are more than 35 miles an hour and the wind may blow it down,” said Thomas Murphy.

The building was built in the 1940s and was converted into a condo building in 1978.

According to Fort Lauderdale Fire Rescue, about 12 residents are displaced by the evacuation notice.

The building has been going through concrete restoration for a while and according to city officials, recent work uncovered even more concerns, which prompted them to take action.

“We’re just trying to side on caution here,” said Joseph Pasquariello, assistant building official for the City of Fort Lauderdale.

Initially, the city and residents received a letter from the project engineer that stated the building wasn’t safe and that residents needed to be out by Friday.

However, the winds from Hurricane Helene changed the plan and forced the residents to evacuate on Thursday.

“He escalated that concern last night to where he wasn’t comfortable with the direction the weather conditions and escalated to where he wanted to see the building evacuated immediately,” said Pasquariello.

The letter reads in part:

"Please have the building vacated immediately until the winds associated with Hurricane Helene have subsided.”

Meanwhile, the condo association hired a new crew of engineers.

However, the first engineers who started the restoration project and the new engineers do not agree when it comes to the safety of the building and its residents.

“We are going to work on the specifications and the shoring plan to make sure that the building is safe,” said Joseph Chaiban with Chaiban Engineering.

“There is no need to vacate the building. This is very common in the salty environment and we see it all the time,” said George Akouri with Akouri Consulting Engineers.

Chaiban and Akouri will meet with city officials on Friday, which might determine the next steps for the condo residents.

Residents were left scrambling on Thursday to pick up their things and evacuate.

“All of the sudden, the building is uninhabitable,” said Warren Sackler, a resident.

“Is the building going to fall down, I don’t know,” said a resident.

“Just some cross beams are eroded, some rebar is exposed, it’s an easy fix,” said Murphy. “They are working on an emergency shoring plan and how this turned into this today, I have no idea.”

The 12 displaced residents are now awaiting the outcome of Friday’s meeting between the engineers and city officials.